THE INFLUENCE OF DRIP IRRIGATION FREQUENCY AND MULCHING ON THE SOIL PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND YIELD IN OKRA. (Abelmoschus esculentus)

Abstract
Several irrigation systems or methods have been use by many people to efficiently provide water for crop productivity. Drip irrigation system has been a best method so far, supplying water to plant, maximizing water usage, it tends to be cost effective and reduces stress. The field experiment was conducted between January 2017 and March 2017 at the Teaching and Research Farm, Federal University Oye-Ekiti (lkole Campus). The experiment design used entail; two factorial laid in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. Irrigation constituted the main factor at three levels: (daily, twice a week and thrice a week designate-d as F1,F2, f3 respectively), while the sub-plot was mulching which include; ( plastic mulch, natural mulch and no mulch designated as M1, M2, M3) which in total give nine treatment combinations and 36 plots in total. Soil samples were randomly collected from O- 15 cm soil depth from three representative locations and were mixed to obtain a composite sample to determine some selected soil physiochemical properties including soil pH, K, Na, Mg, Ca, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and available phosphorus and soil texture, particles size, bulk density, soil water content, saturated hydraulic -conductivity. Data derived were subjected to descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA) and means were separated by Tukey Honest Test at 5% level of probability. The Pearson correlation coefficient gave some important information on the growth parameters, yield and yield components.